Europe finished as an industrial and military region?

[BrilloPad]

Britain sacrifices steel industry to curry favour with China

[DimPrawn]

We usually curry favour with India.

Or it that curry flavour?

[darmstadt]

What do you expect:

George Osborne last month described China as Britain’s “partner for growth” and invited the country to buy up parts of British infrastructure, including planned nuclear plants.

Many EU countries have stepped in to help their steel industries while our Government dithers about what to do.

The problems caused by high energy bills, a global glut in production and cut-price Chinese imports are not unique to Britain.

Yet we are almost alone in doing the bare minimum to support our plants .

We are the only country in Europe to insist on a “carbon price floor” – a top-up tax brought in to encourage firms to switch to greener fuels.

And our support for energy-reliant businesses hit by an EU-wide deal on carbon emissions has been pathetic.

Many EU countries have stepped in to help their steel industries while our Government dithers about what to do.

The problems caused by high energy bills, a global glut in production and cut-price Chinese imports are not unique to Britain.

Yet we are almost alone in doing the bare minimum to support our plants .

We are the only country in Europe to insist on a “carbon price floor” – a top-up tax brought in to encourage firms to switch to greener fuels.

And our support for energy-reliant businesses hit by an EU-wide deal on carbon emissions has been pathetic.

Chancellor George Osborne has set aside just £500million a year to help heavy energy users such as steel.

Germany has set aside £3.67billion.

In the UK firms are also put at a disadvantage by being forced to source some of their electricity from renewables, adding £8 to the cost of every tonne of steel produced.

In 2014 Britain was paying 9p per kilowatt hour for electricity , compared with 4.12p in France and 4.81p in Germany.

Strict EU rules bar governments from using state aid to prop up firms.

But other countries have either turned a blind eye to the regulations or found ways to get round them.

In Italy the government took control of the Ilva steelworks in January to save 16,000 jobs.

Recently the firm was handed £74million for “environmental improvements” – regarded by many as direct state aid.

Germany also hands out aid to its regional governments on the understanding that steel produced in the country is used on any projects.

The business secretary is also in talks with the European Commission to push for the approval of the UK's Energy Intensive Industries compensation scheme, which helps struggling steelmakers. The scheme, which is awaiting EU state-aid approval is due to be introduced from next April but the government is hoping for the programme to be introduced earlier.

No it won't if there's a Brexit

Need to find the link but the EU did offer sometime back but the Tories turned them down...

[AtW]

Need to find the link but the EU did offer sometime back but the Tories turned them down...

"What they are blocking is a change to an EU regulation intended to beef up Europe's 'trade defence instruments' (TDI), enabling it to respond much more quickly to Chinese dumping and too impose much tougher penalties. The British have cobbled together a blocking minority in the council, much to the annoyance of the French, Italians, Spanish, and Germans."

[AtW]

"“The British are sacrificing an entire European industry to say thank you to China for signing up to the nuclear power project at Hinkley Point, and pretending it is about free trade,” one official said."

"On Wednesday night a source close to Tata said that Britain’s refusal to back higher tariffs on Chinese steel had been the “last straw” for the company. "

Source: Tata steel crisis: EU row over deal to save British industry from Chinese imports - Telegraph

Why did Britain need China to build nuclear power reactors anyway? I guess that industry was sacrificied long time ago...

Saving bankers was a no brainer though...

[darmstadt]

Ah okay, so Javid thingy blocked the deal which could have helped:

Tata’s decision came after Javid opposed calls last month to scrap a regulation known as the “lesser duty rule”, which would have allowed the EU to increase tariffs on Chinese steel beyond the current 9%. The government said this would lead to higher costs for users of steel and was not a proportionate response.
The government was also accused of failing to support British industry last year when it emerged that the Ministry of Defence would use Swedish steel for a multibillion pound contract for armoured cars and ships. Officials said rules had been changed to make that less likely in future.

David Cameron accused of failing UK steel after EU proposal rejected | Business | The Guardian

[Chuck]

Why did Britain need China to build nuclear power reactors anyway?

Because all our nuclear expertise was sold to the US. Anyway, I'm not sure we need the Chinese to build them, just to fund them. We're relying on the French to build them.

We should cancel HS2 and fund the nuclear build ourselves. Reliable power for decades versus 20 minutes off a trip between Brum and London.

What a staggeringly poor state of affairs.

[sasguru]

Don't know about Europe but the UK is definitely finished as an industrial and military region.
In the case of steel, you can hardly blame Europe as the previous posts have shown.

[BlasterBates]

Yes Germany allows its Steel industry cheap electricity. The UK could do the same under EU rules. If that was the only problem they would have course done this, as Tata would have lobbied for it and the government would probably have agreed.

After a Brexit Britain will spend it's time trying to broker trade deals with all the strings attached. There will be loads of unwanted legislation being brought in to get deals with the EU, China, India and US.

and what happens if Scotland leaves the UK and remains in or joins the EU, so having left to close the border to the EU, we have a huge "hole" in the North, and the free border with Ireland.

There is absolutely no way a British government can close the border between the UK and Ireland without starting a civil war.

So even after a Brexit and huge barbed wire fences errected around Dover and Folkstone, EU citizens will be able to take a flight to Dublin or Glasgow and freely wander into Britain without a passport check.

[bobspud]

We are all in a death grip heading towards christknowswhat...

On one level it looks like we are kowtowing to china on this matter (coz we are) but at the same time the Chinese government must be sat there feeling like they have their balls in the vice having agreed to spend their way out our problems in the last rescission and now being faced with eye watering dept and over capacity in their own economy. For all the theoretical economists that are stood around mumbling about Keynesian theory etc we really are very close to a kaboom moment.

This is quite good:

https://www.thersa.org/discover/vide...of-capitalism/

Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrzXIV8eZPo